Lone call for business reporters

The ad reads like a relic, something that surfaced from -- egads -- 1997.

The ad appears on www.JournalismJobs.com, seeking reporters and editors to produce a "new economy/tech magazine startup in stealth mode based in San Francisco Bay Area."

Representatives I called from various other tech publishers -- IDG, Ziff Davis Media, CMP Media -- all claimed no knowledge of a new startup in the works.

"Sounds like a very, very dangerous route for someone to be going down right now," said Jonathan Simpson-Bint, president of Imagine Media -- a Brisbane publisher who is, obviously, not behind the ad. "We all know that market has been absolutely crucified. . . . Good luck to them."

And that makes sense: These guys are all shutting down magazines for the most part. CMP is the latest to fold a title, announcing the end of M-Business,

a free monthly devoted to the mobile industry. (Although Ziff promises it will be starting magazines this year, now that it recapitalized its debt, and IDG is launching Bio-IT World next month, covering the life sciences market.)

"It must be a little guy behind it with the ambition little guys sometimes have. They think they can do it better and smarter than the big guys," Simpson- Bint said.

The notion of the new mag being in stealth mode prompted one New York publicist -- who did not want to be named, of course -- to speculate: "It must be a West Coast thing. The East Coast isn't very good at stealth."

The view from the West Coast is just the reverse: Fred Davis -- who has joined with fellow tech publishing veterans David Bunnell and Michael Tchong to start a company called Consumertronics that plans to launch a magazine, Dig- it, this summer -- said it's not him. "This is a sign of an outsider, like a big East Coast publisher," Davis said.

"I can't believe the editor in chief's position was advertised on Craig's List," Davis said, referring to another site where the position was apparently posted. "If you don't know who the editor in chief will be, don't get in the game."

Or in the words of Samir Husni, a professor of journalism at the University of Mississippi known as "Mr. Magazine," "It's such a fishy ad. If you are looking for all these people, who's doing it?"

Not knowing who's behind it isn't stopping journalists from e-mailing the link around or even sending in resumes. (That can be risky business: What if you send in your resume and it's your own employer starting the magazine? You've just marked yourself as a short-timer.)

One guy who knows who's behind the magazine but isn't saying is Dan Rohn of Berkeley, the founder of JournalismJobs.com. "They were so secretive with me," Rohn said. "I don't know the scope of it. It could be huge or it could be some small business tabloid."

The ad specifically mentions wanting an editor in chief, executive editor, managing editor and reporter. The desired candidates will be "scoop machines (who) can also provide perspective and context on how technology changes the economy and how the economy changes technology."

John Battelle, who founded the Industry Standard -- the king of new-economy magazines before it folded last year -- says it's nothing he's doing. And Ned Desmond, president and editor of Business 2.0, the AOL Time Warner magazine that seems to be the strongest survivor of the new economy titles, said: "We don't fear them at all. Whoever they are, they have remarkable heart and courage. We wish them well."

OLD BOY NETWORK: Gary Rivlin, the author of a new book about Silicon Valley investor Ron Conway, was all set to speak at a meeting of influential technology types -- when he was suddenly disinvited.

Rivlin thinks the group, the Software Development Forum, was trying not to offend Conway. Conway, apparently, is no fan of Rivlin's tome, "The Godfather of Silicon Valley: Ron Conway and the Fall of the Dot-Coms."

Conway is a supporter of SDForum, even hosting a bash for the group at his house last year. Rivlin said Conway told him he had nothing to do with canceling the speech. Conway, the leader of Angel Investors, did not return my e-mail seeking comment yesterday.

Rivlin had been invited by Silicon Valley Business Ink, a weekly newspaper that was working with SDForum on an author program. Executive Director Sandy Herz said SDForum wanted the speeches to be educational for members, dealing with issues of business strategy, but before she could approve the speaker, the magazine had already invited Rivlin. Because he didn't fit the goal, Herz said, the invitation was rescinded.

The person at the magazine who was the go-between declined to comment.

Rivlin didn't mind losing the gig. For one thing, it didn't pay. For another, he said it proved his point that Conway is "the best connected guy you never heard of in Silicon Valley."

"It says something about Conway's power," Rivlin said. "I don't think Conway proclaimed from above, 'Thou shalt not let Rivlin speak or I will cut off funds.' They thought the better part of valor would be not to piss him off. "

For Rivlin, 43, it's just another milestone for the star-crossed book.

First, Rivlin took a leave from his job at the Industry Standard to write the book, which was to be excerpted in the magazine. While he was on leave, the magazine folded. He had earlier turned down Wired magazine's offer to excerpt the book; when he called Wired back, it was too late.

Newsweek expressed an interest, he said -- but the book appeared Sept. 15, and he didn't even follow up. "It was so obvious it didn't have a chance in hell," he said.

Not only that, his publisher was AtRandom, the e-books division that Random House shut down two days after the New York Times reviewed the book.

The book is still out in paperback, but Rivlin is on to other projects, writing freelance articles for magazines from his San Francisco home.

"It's the karma of writing a dot-com failure book," he said. "I got caught up in the downward swoop."